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His reassurance comes after a string of incidents this week involving various problems on three different Dreamliners, all owned by Japanese airlines.

On Monday, ground crews at Boston’s Logan Airport noticed smoke on an empty Japan Airlines jet that had arrived from Tokyo. The smoke stemmed from a fire in a lithium ion battery in the auxiliary power unit.

The following day, JAL had to cancel the takeoff of a Boston to Tokyo flight after a fuel leak was discovered, forcing the plane to be towed back to the airport. Passengers eventually went on to their destination.

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On Wednesday, All Nippon Airways cancelled a domestic 787 flight in Japan as a result of brake problems.

While Sinnett refused to discuss Monday’s fire because the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, he acknowledged that Boeing is examining the batteries used in the aircraft’s electrical system. He noted the plane was designed with several fail-safe mechanisms, so it can fly for hours with only one of six electrical generators working.

He said the batteries have been used for 1.3 million operating hours without any problems.

“We are very happy with how the airplane is performing,” Sinnett said but acknowledged issues have occurred, saying it is not uncommon when a new aircraft is brought into service.

“While we are happy with the level of the performance of the airplane, we are not satisfied until our reliability and our performance is 100 per cent.”

Boeing shares slid dramatically this week, but the price almost recovered its losses by late Wednesday.

Boeing, which is banking on the Dreamliner to transform air travel, has faced a bumpy start with the new aircraft. Deliveries were delayed by more than three years because of repeated glitches.

The plane, which began commercial flying in late 2011, is made of composite plastic materials — including the fuselage — making it a fuel-efficient, long-haul aircraft.

Because there is less concern about rust or metal fatigue, humidity levels can be increased, which helps ease dryness in the cabin and jet lag.

To date, 50 aircraft have been delivered to eight airlines including United. Boeing, which is rolling out five planes a month, has 848 total orders from 58 customers.

Air Canada has ordered 37 of these planes, with the first seven expected to be delivered in 2014.

They seat from 210 to 290 passengers, giving the airline more flexibility to fly to cities across the Atlantic, Pacific and South America that currently may not have enough demand to fill the larger Boeing 777 plane.

Sinnett said the number of problems encountered by the 787 is comparable with when Boeing launched the 777. He said dispatch reliability, in which planes take off within 15 minutes of the schedule, is in the high 90 per cent range.

He said Boeing will assess what happened in recent days and determine whether any changes are needed.

York University professor Fred Lazar said when new airplanes are brought into service, there are often glitches that need to be worked out.

“The good news is there haven’t been any crashes,” Lazar said. “Every new plane has technical problems. They really are sophisticated pieces of technology.

“It’s one thing to do the design and here’s the theory, versus making them operational,” he said, noting the Boeing 737 had initial rudder design problems that were fixed, and it is now one of the world’s bestselling planes.

Boeing will determine if the batteries need to be fixed, and how costly or time-consuming the fix will be, Lazar said.

The Dreamliner is also facing additional scrutiny because it’s a new type of aircraft that was also built differently, with Boeing using many different manufacturers for parts.

Any glitch will get media attention, Lazar said, but he argued that on any given day scores of airlines encounter technical problems, some of which are fixed in minutes, others in a week.

Joseph D’Cruz, a Rotman School of Management professor, agreed that these aircraft contain immensely complicated systems, and companies have to learn from operational experience.

“If the same thing were happening on an Airbus 330, we would not even hear about it because it’s not new,” he said. “Everybody has their eyes on the Dreamliner right now.

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